Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

When you are shopping for your weekly groceries at the supermarket and you turn over the packet to read the ingredients on a bag of chips, a block of chocolate or a box of biscuits, you would expect that what you see is what you get. But, believe it or not, that is not always the case. What is being hidden from us is potentially impacting our health and destroying the environment. Palm oil is one of the world's leading agricultural commodities and is widely used. In fact, palm oil can be found in approximately 40 per cent of food products at the supermarket, and every year the average Australian consumes around 10 kilos of palm oil without even knowing it. That is because, under the current food labelling laws, manufacturers are able to label palm oil as vegetable oil on the packaging. For starters, the palm is a fruit, not a vegetable. Secondly, palm oil is high in saturated fat and low in polyunsaturated fat, and, according to the Heart Foundation, biomedical research indicates that the consumption of palm oil increases the risk of heart disease. Thirdly, in South-East Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 soccer fields is deforested every hour for palm oil plantation, and each year more than 1,000 orangutans die as a result of the land clearing in this region.

There is no question that the current labelling laws are inadequate and are misleading consumers. The fact that palm oil is allowed to be disguised as vegetable oil means that Australians aren't able to make an informed choice for themselves and for their family about what they buy at the supermarket because they are not being given all of the facts. In 2011, when my NXT colleague Senator Xenophon first introduced a bill to strengthen labelling laws for food containing palm oil, Zoos Victoria, Adelaide Zoo and Auckland Zoo in New Zealand launched the Don't Palm Us Off campaign, calling for palm oil to be labelled specifically on food packaging. In the first 12 months of that campaign, more than 130,000 people signed on to show their concern about palm oil. In November 2016, Zoos Victoria relaunched the same campaign, this time attracting a staggering 160,000 signatures.

But the concerns of Australians are falling on deaf ears. Still nothing has been done to ensure consumers can easily determine if the products they are purchasing contain palm oil. In 2011, when Senator Xenophon's previous bill was debated in the Senate, the following remarks were made during the second reading debate by the coalition, who were then in opposition:

There are many processes. They go on for a long time. As Senator Siewert outlined, this has been proposed for many years. But there has been no action. So the coalition, in supporting this bill, is simply saying consumers have the right to know what is in the food and goods they purchase. We believe this will improve consumers' ability to make informed choices.

The community is backing these reforms. Some manufacturers are backing these reforms. It seems that, when the coalition was in opposition, they were also backing these reforms. So why isn't it compulsory for palm oil to be specifically listed as an ingredient on all packaging? Put simply, if the saying 'We are what we eat' is true, then we have the right to know what we are eating, and this bill will give consumers truthful, accurate and clear information about what they are purchasing. In the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations requires that each individual fat and/or oil ingredient of a food is to be declared by its specific common or usual name—that is, palm oil is listed as palm oil. Similarly, under the provisions of this bill, regardless of the amount of palm oil used in the product, palm oil must be listed as an ingredient.

It is important to be clear that this bill is not calling for a boycott of products which contain palm oil; rather, it is designed to enable consumers to know the whole truth about the ingredients a particular product contains so that they can make their own informed choice prior to purchase. Just like the inclusion of wheat in a product is labelled to inform consumers with possible allergies, so too should shoppers be told that palm oil is contained in a particular food product. When Senator Xenophon announced his intention to move his bill back in 2010, he was contacted by dozens of people outraged that they didn't know and couldn't tell that palm oil was an ingredient in their food. Unfortunately, not much has changed in those seven years. The Nick Xenophon Team shares those frustrations. Consumers should be able to trust that, when the list of ingredients is printed on the packaging, all the ingredients are included on that list.

On the issue of conservation, palm oil can be produced sustainably and manufacturers should be encouraged to use certified sustainable palm oil rather than palm oil which is produced as a result of deforestation and a loss of wildlife habitat. In Malaysia and Indonesia, for example, a farmer will chop down all the trees on his land and sell the timber for money. He will then burn the stumps and plant oil palm, which is fast growing. He will crush the fruit to produce palm oil and he can sell the shells of the palm fruit as food for cattle. By cutting down the trees, orangutans lose their habitat. In fact, 90 per cent of orangutan habitat has been lost already. It is forecast that, at the current rate of deforestation, orangutans could be extinct in the wild in fewer than 10 years. On a broader scale, the environmental impact of deforestation is significant. How can we be serious about looking after the environment when we're not encouraging businesses to farm sustainably?

Palm oil can be produced sustainably under criteria set out by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Sustainable palm oil plantations are established in already cleared land rather than through deforestation. The roundtable's criteria also includes requirements for reforestation along the river line, bans on pesticides, appropriate labour conditions and wildlife-friendly practices. Manufacturers who use certified sustainable palm oil will be able to list the use of the ingredient as CS palm oil to indicate its sustainable origins and to show consumers that they are sourcing their ingredient from a sustainable palm oil plantation. This bill will encourage food manufacturers to purchase from sustainable palm oil producers and will provide consumers with all the information they need to make their own choice.

Calling palm oil vegetable oil is misleading. Not telling Australians that palm oil is one of the ingredients in or used to make a product is unfair. There have been some significant changes to food labelling laws made in this parliament and the NXT welcomes these changes. However, more can be done and the discontent felt by the community at the lack of action on this issue is growing. Consumers have a right to know and this bill gives them that right.